I just finished a book this morning which I’d been reading on Kindle. ‘Ovid’ by David Wishart was a detective novel set in ancient Rome. That may sound a bit gimmicky but, think about it. There have been detective novels set in the future, lots of them, detective novels set in the Wild West and during the Civil War, of course the Sherlock Holmes stories were contemporary when they were written but by today’s standards they were set in the past, and then there was “The Name of the Rose,” so it’s really not that odd at all.
Then there’s this thing where every time you download a book (not even buy, necessarily – you get this with free downloads as well) you get a message on facebook asking you to write a review of it.
Well, writing is writing, and it’s actually a cool aspect of the books-on-computers age that readers write the reviews, so I usually go for it.
I gave it a good review. Four stars and a pretty nice write up. Looking back through my past reviews I think I have a tendency to be too generous. I almost always give 4 stars and out of the 15 book reviews I’ve written so far, I’ve only ever given one one star review, and it was deserved.
I love the modern world and the idea that anybody can publish a book, but I’m aware of the downside of that, which is that many pathetic, cringe inducing tomes of word vomit are out there in the marketplace.
Anyway, after writing my glowing review I lingered on the page a bit, pressing this key and that, and I found my reviewers rating, which I presume is based on how many people have read your reviews.
I’m in 31 millionth place. Actually 31 million, some hundred thousand, something, somethingth place. I’m not one of the literati, I barely even rate as a reader.
On the positive side, I know that there are at least 31 million people in the world who care enough about books and reading that they’ve not only read more than me but, presumably again, have written more incisively and in a wittier fashion about those books.
With all we hear, constantly, about how nobody reads any more, I actually find that somewhat reassuring.